Design of a Wheelchair with Legs for People with Motor Disabilities

A proof-of-concept prototype wheelchair with legs for people with motor disabilities is proposed, with the objective of demonstrating the feasibility of a completely new approach to mobility. Our prototype system consists of a chair equipped with wheels and legs, and is capable of traversing uneven terrain and circumventing obstacles. The important design considerations, the system design and analysis, and an experimental prototype of a chair are discussed. The results from the analysis and experimentation show the feasibility of the proposed concept and its advantages. Disciplines Engineering | Mechanical Engineering Comments Suggested Citation: Wellman, P., V. Krovi, V. Kumar and W. Harwin. (1995). "Design of a Wheelchair with Legs for People with Motor Disabilities." IEEE Transactions on Rehabilitative Engineering. Vol. 3(4). pp. 343-353 ©1995 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE. This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/meam_papers/245 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON REHABILITATION ENGINEERING, VOL. 3, NO. 4, DECEMBER 1995 343 Design of a Wheelchair with Legs for People with Motor Disabilities Parris Wellman, Venkat Krovi, Vijay Kumar, and William Harwin